Whew! In some ways I'm glad it's over but I can't wait to get back out there next year! A *huge* thanks goes out to Donnie and Eric who not only gave me a ride out there, they taught me a ton and made the entire experience memorable and extremely enjoyable. On top of that, they expanded my vocabulary with a bunch of new and colorful phrases which I would expound upon but I don't want to upset/offend any children, women or small furry woodland creatures that may be reading this.
There is no way I'll ever be able to repay those guys for their generosity and friendship. Thanks guys!!!
I'd also like to thank Jim Pastorius for introducing me to the national scene last year and all the advice he provided. Without his initial push and guidance, it would have taken me much longer to make the step up assuming I would have ever even gotten there in the first place. He also helped Kristin a tremendous amount after her initial auto-x experience with me didn't go too well. This club just wouldn't be the same without people like this and if I can help somebody in the future even 10% of what these guys did, I would consider it an accomplishment. Thanks again to you all.
I'd also like to thank my co-driver for nationals and new friend, Peter Thana. He is a super nice guy and a great driver who drives an STS Civic in the San Deigo region. Without getting into the slightly convoluted story about how we met, let me just say that he was able to provide me with exactly the type of feedback I need to improve the car immensely. With his input on the chassis and some motor development during the off-season, I expect the car to be supa' dupa' bad fast next season. I can hardly wait!
The car, thankfully, managed to stay in one piece during the entire event. As predicted, the start of both courses allowed a short-shift into 2nd gear which greatly minimized the potential of a missed shift. The north course featured a really long slalom (9 cones?) at the beginning which caught a lot of people out-- myself included. I never managed to get that one right but once through that section, the rest of the course was a blast. We fought a few handling problems which we couldn't do much about but I still felt like I drove well so I was pleased with that.
The biggest problem we faced was once again getting the car to rotate. Strangely enough, the car was evil loose in the slalom but would push pretty bad through the rest of the course. We had to dial back the rear shocks just to survive the slalom and it really hurt us everywhere else. That wasn't something we were going to fix with 5 minutes between runs but I have a plan in place for the future.
The other problem we faced was massive wheel spin. I mentioned to Peter before we started the event that the car had wheel spin problems all season and he said the same thing everybody else I've talked to about it, "we don't have wheel spin issues with our car." Given the damp conditions on Tuesday, Peter didn't feel like the wheel spin was out of control but after running the bone-dry north course on Wednesday, he confirmed what I thought all along. My car has massive wheel spin issues!
Considering the soft 250k mile motor in the car, power certainly wasn't the cause. We think the biggest issue is the goofy mounting point of the rear swaybar. The '88 cars mount the rear swaybar in the middle of the rear lower control arm while everything '89+ mounts at the end where the lower shock bolt is. This greatly reduces the effectiveness of the bar which allows the inside front tire too much upward travel and hence, massive wheel spin. Since I haven't driven a front-wheel drive car in 15 years, I didn't know how much wheel spin was "normal". Even on the uber-grippy concrete in Topeka, my car couldn't put down its measly power unless the wheels were pointed dead-straight. Fixing that will be my first priority for next couple of events.
Anyway, it's good to be home. Thanks to all who were rooting for us and we'll try to do even better next year.
Jim
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